Power of Humour: Making it work at the office

by Wendy Woods

I have spent a lot of time in hospitals lately as my dad deals with severe radiation burns.  Despite the challenges, stress and lack of resources within the healthcare system, I’m amazed at hospital staff who use humour to put patients at ease.  Even a few simple words can get a patient to laugh, smile and momentarily forget their troubles.  Here are some of my favorite hospital moments:

* Prior to surgery in August, staff had to put a hair net on my dad.  When they gave him an unattractive cap, they joked about having to take his picture.  Next when they had to get him slippers, they promised him the ‘Armanis’.  It was the perfect way to help lighten the stress of surgery.

* While my dad was waiting for one of the many tests, scans and procedures, one of the nurses told him “Running away was allowed”.

* An orderly, who took my dad for a CT scan, walked in calling him ‘handsome’ in the most respectful yet fun way.  Once he found out my dad’s last name was Woods, he started calling him Tiger after the famous golfer.  My dad and those around him laughed especially in light of the recent controversy surrounding Tiger.

If hospital employees can use humour effectively, you too can use it in your work environment to reduce stress, enhance relationships or improve teamwork.  Use humour in conversation, at meetings or in presentations.  Start small, with these simple suggestions, until you find your comfort zone.

1.    Find funny quotes instead of making up your own humour.  There are many sources but try these two to start http://thinkexist.com/quotations/funny/  and http://www.quotes-museum.com/

2.    Share a funny story.  It’s easy to find funny stories or news however the best stories are ones that involve you.  Laughing at yourself allows your colleagues to see your humility, ability to take yourself lightly and your sense of humour.  Just ensure the story is appropriate for the office and won’t risk offending anyone.

3.    Repeat a great one liner or joke from a show, movie or comedy routine.  A few good examples for the office are” “Houston, we have a problem” (Apollo 13), “I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” (Wizard of Oz), or “Show me the money” (Jerry Maguire).  Obviously it’s up to you to find an appropriate time and place to use any line.

The more you practice using humour at work, the more you’ll see its workplace benefits.

Humour, Attention and Engagement

Humour gets attention and is engaging.  Engagement is a key to learning, advertising, leadership, and team work. If you are not integrating humour into some core business functions in appropriate ways you are loosing time and money.

Humour important to Learning

Students at the (not a particularly funny field of study) strongly agreed that humor usage was engaging and motivating (88%), increased material retention (60%), did not decrease attendance (93%) and enhanced the overall learning experience (78%).

Humour gets Attention

The BBC says that a regular Web user has the attention span of a goldfish. According to Stephen Jones, editor of Growth Strategies, humor can increase attention by 700%. Getting attention is key to selling, motivating and persuading. Half of the world’s most impactful ads are humorous; whereas just 1 percent of the least impactful ads are humorous. Other studies prove that 94% of advertising practitioners see humor as an effective way to gain attention. Both the viral video and experiential marketing trends and campaigns also make use of humour.

Humour and Working

Why do 98% percent of CEO’s prefer job candidates with a sense of humour? Because 84% think that those with a sense of humour do better work. And more than three-quarters of workers believe that companies that promote fun at work are more effective than companies that do not. Are you a leader who promotes fun at work?

Snoozing

Seventy one percent of business people admit to having fallen asleep during a business presentation. It may just have been a big lunch that put them to sleep or it may have been the content or delivery. Change the content, delivery or deliverer. Or find ways to wake them up. Fortune 500 companies in the lowest quartile in profitability had 50% fewer engaged employees compared to those in the top quartile.

Most Laughter Improvised

Eighty to ninety percent of laughter does not follow anything related to a joke, story telling or anything intended to be funny. Most everyday laughter is an unexpected improvised process. The trick to this is having enough presence and confidence. The good news is that you don’t need to tell jokes.

Humour in Emails

Our advice is to keep humour out of emails unless you have a positive relationship with your intended recipient. Fifty six percent of humour fails in emails because humour is dependent on body language, tone of speech and appropriate pausing. These critical factors are absent in emails.

Make Humor Relevant

Make the humour relevant to the message and the audience. Studies have shown that the less the intended humour relates to the message, the more likely people will remember that ‘funny ad’ or ‘funny trainer’ but not remember the content. You might be getting attention at the cost of your message.

Sarcasm

Sarcasm can be humorous but there is often some form of negativity behind sarcasm, bitterness or past grievance. Sarcasm can be a symptom of a dysfunctional team or relationship and the best way to get at this issue is to engage actively in conflict. Ask yourself, is my humour inclusive? Does it bring people together or does it create divisions?

Creating Engagement

Laughter is 30 times more frequent in social than solitary situations. Strive then to capitalize on opportunities to use humour strategically in training, communications, meetings, and in marketing. On a personal, tactical level, remember that the truth is usually funnier than fiction so start by taking yourself and your life less seriously. Then, apply that same lesson to finding ways to bring out the natural humour and laughter of the people in your team, audience or market.

Truth Funnier than Fiction

I was asked to deliver a workshop on the topic of humour for a telecommunications company. I asked them why they wanted a workshop on humour and they replied: “You’ll know when you get here.”